Trade: A retreat on new China tariffs

(AP, Reuters)

President Trump abruptly suspended plans to impose new tariffs on Chinese imports, to avoid hurting the holiday shopping season, said Josh Zumbrun in The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. has already imposed tariffs of 25 percent on about $250 billion worth of Chinese imports. Angered by the slow progress of negotiations, Trump had threatened a 10 percent levy on consumer goods like smartphones, laptops, toys, and video games starting Sept. 1. But the president retreated Tuesday, saying he would offer a reprieve “for Christmas season.” If all the tariffs planned for September and December are put into effect, they will cover “nearly everything the U.S. imports from China.”

The president “finally acknowledges his tariffs could hit consumers,” said Heather Long in The Washington Post. His statements Tuesday were “a noticeable change from his insistence that the Chinese are paying the full cost.” The truth is, up till now, “many U.S. companies opted to absorb a lot of the added costs” of tariffs that had mainly affected component parts. But a tariff on “finished goods like shoes and iPhones” that businesses had already committed to importing would likely be felt by consumers. Suspending the September tariffs eases the immediate burden, but “does little to mitigate the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s trade policy.” ■